Base salary of a suspended player doesn't count toward the salary cap, but guaranteed bonuses do - as in the prorated annual signing bonus.

Also, they'll save 1/4 of Will Smith's annual base salary, but unfortunately when they restructured his contract earlier, they made his base salary very minimal: $825K.

So, with Vilma's new contract, which he signed in April, the Saints will free-up his $1.6M base salary for 2012, but the $500K prorated signing bonus will still count toward to cap, and I'm not sure about the $500K roster bonus or the $100K offseason workout bonus.

Basically the rule of thumb is that suspended players' base salaries won't count toward the cap, but bonuses will. So, the cap relief the Saints receive from the two suspensions could be as little as $1.8M. I have no idea where the $13M would come from if the Saints at the moment have about $8M in cap, because Vilma's 2012 cap hit would be $2.8M if he were to play.

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